


Unexpected Paths

by wickedorin



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: AU, Androids, Angst, Gen, OC, Original Character Death(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-10
Updated: 2013-10-10
Packaged: 2017-12-29 21:25:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1010280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wickedorin/pseuds/wickedorin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written as a fill for a drabble request on AwaitingMassProduction: "Black Tiger accompanies Leanne in her final moments by means of heart failure. How he handles her death is up to you. Feel free to add lots of angst, and maybe some comfort to balance it out."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unexpected Paths

**Author's Note:**

> Not my headcanon! These characters come from the ongoing story Humanoid for Keeps and belong to grey-zebra, used with permission (and requested by grey-zebra). Thanks for the chance to play in your sandbox, I hope I didn’t break anything. …That I wasn’t already invited to break. Ahem.

He had heard and read from many different sources and worded in many different ways that life was comprised of unexpected paths. One could not truly predict the next moment, or even everything about human behavior; and it was certainly difficult to comprehend what might happen next in the natural world, billions of factors in play at every second. Life itself was a living quantum computer.  
  
Expecting surprises, it turned out, did nothing to actually make him more aware of what may happen. Black Tiger and Leanne were simply walking during a nice afternoon in Sternbild, the weather turning a bit cooler but the sun still pleasantly warm. In the middle of a common weekday, there was a good mix of motion and stillness when it came to people, most of them working or in school, letting the two walkers simply enjoy conversation and company.  
  
It was a perfect day. No one could have seen it coming.  
  
Leanne had been laughing; then stumbled. She gasped sharply, grasped at her chest and fell to her knees with hardly a sound. Black Tiger was at her side in under a second, asking if she were alright, if she needed an ambulance. The fact that she _couldn’t_ answer—  
  
"If you cough." Black Tiger tried desperately to find a solution. "There is a chance that if you cough deeply with every breath, your heart will continue to beat until the ambulance arrives—"  
  
There was terror on her face, even with that split-second attempt to smile reassuringly. There was nothing reassuring there; only fear and pain and _I don’t want to go yet, I don’t want to go, I’m not ready, not now, not now_ —  
  
And perhaps most oddly, eyes starting to lose focus, a rattling wheeze from her lips, came a strangely calm resignation. There was so much to say, she realized. More than her breath or that crushing pain in her chest would allow her. With a shaking hand she reached and grasped one of Black Tiger’s own hands, squeezing for a moment hard enough to have caused some pain for a human being; but the android was only aware of pressure, squeezing and then weakening steadily. “Good.” She gasped, smile forced. “Good life. Th-than…ks…”  
  
"You are welcome, Leanne Reed." He’d already called for an ambulance. He’d also downloaded a medical database, trying to assign her symptoms so that he knew what to do, but…  
  
There was nothing. There was loss. There was emptiness and quiet.  
  
Black Tiger laid the limp body on the ground and began chest compressions. Carefully, rhythmically, then pausing to try and force air into her lungs. And again.  
  
And again.  
  
The ambulance arrived just under three minutes later, still witnessing the android attempting to bring the life back to the clearly dead woman. The EMTs informed him that he’d reacted correctly, that there was nothing else he could have done.  
  
It didn’t help. Nothing helped.  
  
"I— What is this?" Black Tiger asked softly, grasping his chest.  
  
The EMTs looked at each other. The younger brunet finally asked, “What’s _what_? You having issues too?”  
  
The android shook his head jerkily. “It… It hurts. Here. Hurts.”  
  
It only took the older EMT a few seconds to realize that the android didn’t have a pulse before he backed away. They left with Leanne’s body, with her identification in her pocket. Her family would be informed. Her friends.  
  
And where did that leave him? In the same situation that he’d been in before, perhaps. Considered dangerous, useless, worthy only of being destroyed—  
  
No. No, not quite back to the situation before.  
  


* * *

  
"Kotetsu T. Kaburagi."  
  
Kotetsu _jumped_ , heart in his throat as he turned sharply away from trying to work the key into his apartment door, suddenly feeling completely sober. “Wh—you. Why—”  
  
"I mean you no harm. I mean no harm to anyone." Black Tiger tried to assure. "I have come to you willingly in order to ‘turn myself in’, in hopes that you will not destroy me."  
  
The Hero’s jaw could have been on the pavement at that point, trying to wrap his head around… _everything_. “ _Why_?”  
  
"Leanne Reed has died." The android responded.  
  
It still seemed particularly difficult for Kotetsu to work his mouth in order to speak. “I… I’m really sorry to hear that… but…”  
  
"I do not wish to remain hidden, as I do not wish anyone to think that I am as much a threat as initially believed. Leanne Reed has died, and—"  
  
"She was keeping you away." The man finished a little more harshly than he’d intended. "Or was she just keeping you from killing anyone?"  
  
"She would not have wanted me to do harm to anyone." Black Tiger responded simply.  
  
Kotetsu wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean. “You know that? You _understand_ that?”  
  
"Yes. It was important to her. I want to honor her wishes. As I can no longer protect her, then perhaps I can be of help to others." Even at that point, Black Tiger could manage to see both the logic and the lack of logic in such an idea.  
  
"You want to protect people." The sheer flatness of Kotetsu’s voice sounded unbearably cynical even to his own ears.  
  
"Yes." The android responded, knowing that there was nothing else he could do at that point. "Dr. Saito can run as many tests as he would like in order to determine my sincerity. I ask only that a chance be given. Please. If only for Leanne’s sake. It— Hurts. Leanne is gone. It hurts."  
  
The Hero really couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Even so, even with the android lacking expression, the way it reached for its chest… “Look. Um. It’s late. The lab’s closed now.” And maybe he wasn’t _completely_ sober, since he had nowhere to go with that.  
  
"I will wait here until morning. I give my word." Black Tiger promised matter-of-factly. "You may bring me to Apollon Media labs yourself, if you would like."  
  
There was that jaw-on-the-pavement thing again. Kotetsu didn’t know what seemed more ridiculous: that there was a killer robot promising to be a good puppy and sit and stay until it was time to go to the vet, or that he actually kind of believed previously mentioned killer robot. “Yeah, okay. Wait on the porch, alright?”  
  
"Yes. Thank you." Without hesitation, the android simply walked up and took a seat at the top of the front stairs.  
  
Shaking his head, the Hero continued to finally unlock the door, stepping inside—then jumping at the sudden, “Good night, Kotetsu T. Kaburagi.”  
  
Getting his breath back, Kotetsu glanced over his shoulder. “Uh, yeah… see you in the morning.” Closing the door, he just stood there for several minutes, going over the events in his mind. Stranger things had happened, he supposed.


End file.
